


The Return of Leo Valdez

by mediumsad



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-08-30 22:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8551474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mediumsad/pseuds/mediumsad
Summary: Piper isn't sure if she can forgive Leo for lying to and abandoning the Seven.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I liked ToA, I didn't find Leo's return very believable. This is my take on it.
> 
> takes place a little over a year after BoO

“Piper!”  
Piper looked up from her book, only to see her ex-boyfriend running towards her at full speed. “Piper!” he said again, skidding to a halt in front of her.  
She put her book down, rolling her eyes. “What is it, Jason?”  
It took her a few seconds to register the look on his face. This wasn’t his usual excitement, the expression he got when he was just back from Rome, or when he’d discovered an interesting creature in the woods with Reyna. This was different. He was excited, but there was also a sadness in his eyes, and anger just barely masked. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her wooden chair. “Leo’s back.”

  
And she was running, running faster than she ever had before, which was really saying something. Piper could barely feel her legs, her feet almost-not-really touching the ground. She wasn’t completely sure where she was going, just running, running in the direction that Jason had come from, where a small group of campers had gathered.  
She pushed her way to the front, ignoring the muffled “hey”s and “watch it!”s.

  
And there was Leo. He was wearing a blue shirt and jeans that looked new, his tool belt still hanging loosely from his hips, though it looked like he’d gained some weight. There was a girl with him, tall with wavy caramel hair, skin so tan it was almost darker than Piper’s. She was holding onto Leo’s arm, laughing at everything he said, smiling at no one in particular.  
When Leo didn’t see her, Piper did the thing any concerned friend would do.

  
She launched herself at him.

  
Leo didn’t even see her coming. He was just talking to a few campers, maybe trying to explain who he was and why he had finally come back after all this time, while the tall girl just hung on to his arm, laughing, smiling.  
And then Piper was tackling him, punching at his uncharacteristically clean face, pounding her fists against his chest. She could feel tears pouring out of her eyes, staining her face, she didn’t care. She just didn’t care anymore.

  
Maybe it was a few seconds later, maybe it was two years, but Piper could feel someone pulling her off of the smaller boy. “No!” she shouted, “Let go of me!” But the arms were still there, pulling away from the soon-to-be bruised body of her old friend.  
She looked around. Annabeth was pulling Leo up off of the ground. Jason was next to her, just staring, unable to speak. Piper felt an arm sling comfortingly around her shoulder, she knew it was Percy. The taller boy whispered something into her ear, she couldn’t hear him. She knew her friends couldn’t help her this time.

  
Piper shrugged off Percy’s arm, taking a tentative step towards Leo. He flinched, a few campers got ready to hold her back. Annabeth glared at them, and they all stepped back.  
She looked into his bloodied, broken face. With a start, she realized that she had done this to him, to this boy that had abandoned her. Piper finally knew what Reyna had felt when Jason had left her alone in New Rome. But they had made up. Jason had apologized.  
And Piper wasn’t sure if she could ever forgive this boy.  
She took a deep breath, preparing to let all of her emotions spill out.

  
“A year, Leo?”  
It was all she could get out.  
Piper felt her eyes well up with more hot tears. “A whole year?”  
Leo cast his eyes down, refusing to make eye contact. “I’m sorry.”  
“You’re sorry.” A dry laugh escaped her lips. “You’re sorry?” She felt herself take another step forward. “We thought you were dead.”  
“I was.” Leo fidgeted with the end of his tool belt. “The serum, it worked. I died, then I came back.”  
Piper’s hands clenched into fists, her fingernails biting at her soft palms. “I can't believe you.”  
She spun on her heel and sprinted away.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper talks to Annabeth about what she should do, eventually deciding to seek out Leo and talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter with the pipabeth, but it's mostly subtextual so far

It was hours later when Annabeth found her, lying face-down on the roof of the Aphrodite cabin. “He's sorry, you know.”  
Piper lifted her head up at the sound of her friend’s voice. “He was gone a year, Annabeth. A year.”  
Annabeth lay down next to the crying girl, placing her hand on top of Piper’s. “I know,” she sighed. “And you shouldn't have to forgive him.”  
Piper turned her head towards Annabeth’s. “I thought you came up here to get me to do exactly that.”  
“That's what everyone wanted me to do,” Annabeth said. She chuckled, “Percy said I was the only one who could find you.”  
That’s weird, Piper thought. Percy knew all the places where she brooded. Why would he say that?  
“Anyway, I . . .” Annabeth trailed off, trying to find the right words to use. “He used you, I remember. You thought you had the cure, but you didn't, and he didn't tell any of us his plan.”  
“And then he left for a year,” Piper said for maybe the tenth time that day. She waited for more tears to come, but her face remained dry.  
“But he still loves you,” said Annabeth. “You were his first real friend.”  
Piper laughed humorlessly. “I don't understand where you're going with this. Do you think I should forgive him or not?”

 

The blonde exhaled loudly, blowing Piper’s hair out of her face. “I think you should talk to him. You don't owe him anything, but at least that way you'd let him explain his side of the story. Then you could make your decision while knowing most of the facts.”  
Piper found herself nodding. Annabeth’s logical mind was exactly what she needed in this situation. Piper always followed her emotions and instinct, and Annabeth was a good counterbalance to her usual hot-headedness. “Alright,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I'll talk to him.”

 

***

 

The dusty windows of cabin 9 were glowing, as if all the disgustingly happy light from the inside couldn't be contained and was seeping out onto the rest of the camp. Broken bits of conversation muffled by heavy bass music spilled outside from under the slightly open door. Apparently Leo’s siblings didn't care that he'd abandoned them, and had somehow thrown together a last-minute welcome-home party.  
Piper tugged at her hair in frustration before entering the crowded room. She had expected the music to stop and everyone to drop what they were holding and stare at her, or at least someone to recognize her arrival, but no one seemed to notice her. Whatever.  
She slowly worked her way through the throngs of campers, asking where they'd last seen Leo every so often. None of them seemed to be eager to help her, which was fair, considering that she’d probably given him a black eye. At one point, Piper was pretty positive she’d seen the tall girl who’d been with Leo slip outside, but she couldn't be sure.

 

Then she spotted the little jerk.  
“Yeah, so this dude said we had to get the ingredients for a potion to cure death, and we were all like -”  
As Piper made eye contact with the scrawny boy, she saw him falter.  
“Leo,” she said through clenched teeth, “everyone has heard us recount our quests multiple times since your death.”  
Leo smiled nervously, then hopped off the stool he’d been on and walked over to Piper. “Can we talk outside?” he whispered.  
Piper crossed her arms. She wanted to say no, make him face her in front of all these people, but she knew that was unreasonable. “Fine.”


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Leo finally have a normal human conversation, or something like that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's pretty short but it has a pipabeth mention so

Leo fidgeted with his toolbelt. “Look, Piper, I'm really sorry -”  
“Sorry?” she said angrily, trying not to punch him. “I've spent over a year trying to move past your death, and so has everyone else. Even Frank, and you were a dick to him. Jason cried every night for months, and -”  
“Let me apologize!” Leo shouted. “I know I've been horrible, and I will do anything to make this up to you, but . . .” he sighed. “When did you get so angry, beauty queen?”  
Piper growled. “Call me ‘beauty queen’ again and I'll rip your throat out.”  
“That's what I mean!” he said, gesturing at Piper as if there were some invisible red-hot force radiating off her. “The Piper I knew was caring, loving, kind! I mean, sure, I've seen you mad before, but this is crazy different!”  
“Oh yeah?!” Piper took a threatening step towards Leo, clenching her fists. “Well the Leo I knew was dead. So sorry if that's changed me.”

 

Leo's shoulders slumped, and Piper could see tears welling up in his eyes. “I just want things to go back to the way they were.”  
Piper’s tough-guy facade broke for just a second. She felt her gaze soften. “I'm sorry, Leo. But they can’t, not that easily.”  
Leo looked up, sniffling. He chuckled half-heartedly. “I didn't think me being gone would affect people so much.”  
Piper looked away, choking back a sob. “I didn't think I meant so little to you.”  
“Piper, of course you mean a lot to me, and -”  
“Save it,” she said, interrupting him for the thousandth time that night. “Maybe, someday in the future, we’ll be friends again.” Piper turned away from the cabin. “But right now, I have too much to deal with. I'm trying to charm a cute blonde girl, I need to help the camp and my cabin prepare for capture the flag, and now I have to sort through a ton of emotions.”  
Leo chuckled weakly. “I guess I’ll see you then, McLean.”  
Piper smiled sadly. “You're alright, Valdez. Just give me time.”

 

The two parted ways feeling not as if one chapter of their friendship had just ended, but that another was about to start.


End file.
